Great benefit may be had from considering particular aspects of the life of her to whom the Science of the Christ has been finally and completely revealed, the beloved Leader of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. Recently there came vividly to thought the picture of the simple ceremony of her ordination as pastor of her Church. Her own description may be found in The Christian Science Journal of April, 1889.
She had met with the members of the March Primary Class for the last time "for the usual conversational, leave-taking exercise" (ibid., p. 12). I was among those so greatly privileged as to be numbered in this class, and I heard from her own lips the following words: "I will say, too, since we are talking of church matters, that I was ordained, as I suppose, the first teachers of the primitive church were, by the members of my church, and the ordination took place by the light of a candle placed on a barrel." This simple ceremony occurred on November 9. 1879, on the eve of her departure from Lynn.
Her divine ordination really began, as with the great spiritual leaders whose lives are recorded in Scripture, in early youth. The lives of Samuel, Joseph, John the Baptist, and above all, Christ Jesus, were distinguished even in their early years by a spiritual acumen which gave promise of their later careers as spiritual ministers to humanity's needs. As it was with Samuel, who as a child heard and answered God's call to him, so it was with the child Mary Baker. In her autobiography Mrs. Eddy says that at eight years of age she heard her name called, but not by a human voice. In the same work she tells of her disagreement, when twelve years of age, with the theological beliefs of the day regarding predestination (Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 9, 13-15). Thought turns immediately to the child Jesus talking with the elders in the temple at Jerusalem. The record (Luke 2:46) gives a striking description of the scene in which Jesus, as a child of twelve, not only listened to temple dignitaries, but also answered their questions.
